Avoidance Situation

In Short

When the exploration ship Sunward discovers the habitable world of Trellis, Captain Allen Hawkins expects a routine colonization mission. Instead, the crew encounters Lan Sur, an arrogant surveyor from the technologically superior Dakn Empire. Rendered totally invulnerable by advanced force fields, Lan Sur presents humanity with a terrifying ultimatum: submit peacefully to total mind-wiping and planetary enslavement, or face swift extermination. Realizing that human weapons cannot harm the alien, Hawkins devises a cunning psychological trap to exploit a single blind spot in Dakn science, forcing him to weigh the survival of the human species against the loss of the starry sky.

The Story

The crew of the Terran exploration vessel Sunward celebrates a historic milestone upon landing on Trellis, a lush world orbiting the star Clarion. After twenty-seven days of environmental testing, Captain Allen Hawkins steps onto the surface, plants the flag of Earth, and initiates a ship's holiday. The mood of triumph is short-lived, however, when Hawkins and senior psychologist Dr. J. L. Broussard spot a humanoid figure striding across the grassy plain toward them.

The lone visitor is Lan Sur, a scout for the vast Dakn Empire. Possessing a personal defensive screen that absorbs all ambient energy, Lan Sur speaks fluent English and delivers a cold, non-negotiable decree. The Dakn Empire tolerates no competing spacefaring civilizations; to prevent future friction, Earth's population must be relocated across empire territory. Every human being will have their memories and personal identity forcibly wiped, replaced with implanted slave personalities. Should humanity resist, the Dakn will completely destroy Earth and all its colonies. To prove his absolute authority, Lan Sur offers the humans a two-hour window to attack him with the full arsenal of their starship.

Hawkins returns to the Sunward and orders his crew to fire everything they have. They bombard the alien with intense heat, millions of volts of electricity, high-explosive torpedoes, and every radiation wavelength at their disposal. Finally, the ship retreats fifty miles to launch a colossal atomic weapon directly at him. As the smoke clears from each strike, Lan Sur walks out of the fiery craters completely unharmed, waving disdainfully at the ship.

Confronted with total military helplessness, Hawkins retreats to his quarters in despair. A breakdown in command reveals that the ship’s radio shack had been broadcasting all events back to Earth, violating Lan Sur's strict ban on outside communication. Expecting immediate annihilation once the alien notices, Hawkins suddenly synthesizes key observations about his enemy. He realizes that while Dakn technology excels at manipulating normal space, the alien scout has no comprehension of "subspace"—the faster-than-light dimension that Earth scientists stumbled upon by pure accident. Furthermore, Lan Sur’s small scout vessel lacks the heavy machinery required to generate a subspace field.

Feigning complete submission, Hawkins contacts Lan Sur and asks for a demonstration of Dakn planetary destruction, requesting that the alien obliterate the system's useless fourth planet as a warning to show the leaders back on Earth. Lan Sur arrogantly agrees and orders the Sunward to move into position. While the alien is distracted preparing his weapon, Hawkins orders his engineers to overload the ship's subspace drive, expanding its field radius to envelop the star Clarion and its three inner planets. The Sunward pulls the entire solar system out of normal space into the pitch-black void of subspace, hiding humanity inside an unmapped dimension where the Dakn Empire cannot follow.

How It Unfolds

A quiet passage through the dark Captain Allen Hawkins and psychologist Dr. Broussard gaze out the Sunward’s observation window into the absolute blackness of subspace, discussing the existential dread that the featureless void instills in spacefarers.

Landing on a promised land The Sunward lands on the habitable planet Trellis, where Captain Hawkins officially claims the world for Earth and joins his crew in celebrating a holiday on the virgin soil.

The invincible messenger A handsome alien scout named Lan Sur approaches the landing site and delivers a brutal ultimatum, offering humanity twenty-four hours to choose between total cultural memory-wiping into slavery or complete planetary annihilation.

The test of weapons The Sunward unleashes its entire military arsenal—from heat rays and lightning blasts to massive atomic weapons—against Lan Sur, only for the alien's force fields to leave him completely unscathed.

Despair in the captain's cabin Overcome by the burden of deciding Earth's fate, Hawkins breaks down in his quarters, wrestling with his duty to save his people while facing a total lack of conventional options.

Deduction and the gamble Hawkins realizes that the Dakn Empire lacks subspace technology, leads his crew to vote unanimously in favor of a secret plan, and tricks Lan Sur into demonstrating his power while the Sunward prepares a subspace spatial displacement.

** Vanishing into the dark** The Sunward expands its subspace field to pull the entire planetary system out of normal space, securing temporary safety for humanity in a starless, hidden dimension.

The People

Captain Allen Hawkins A seasoned military man with silvering hair and gold braid on his sleeve, Hawkins bears the ultimate responsibility of command. He wants to protect humanity from destruction without surrendering its freedom or fundamental identity. When his ship's deadliest weapons fail to scratch the alien enemy, his psychological composure briefly shatters, but his quick strategic mind allows him to spot a critical flaw in the enemy's scientific assumptions.

Dr. J. L. Broussard The Sunward’s relaxed, oversized senior psychologist acts as Hawkins's chief sounding board and confidant. Broussard seeks to understand the mental pressures acting on the crew and provides insightful commentary on conflict resolution and human perception. His casual discussions about psychological defense mechanisms give Hawkins the exact framework needed to rally the crew and execute a desperate gamble.

Surveyor Lan Sur A scout officer of the vast Dakn Empire, Lan Sur is striking, handsome, and utterly devoid of empathy. He views human beings as low-order organisms suitable only for forced labor. Confident in his personal invulnerability and the technical supremacy of his civilization, his overwhelming arrogance prevents him from recognizing that human science might possess a technology his own culture never discovered.

In Its Own Voice

"During my training at the Academy they locked me up in a closet once, just as a joke. I was without light for hours, but it was nothing like that out there. You should know, Broussard. Why does it look so much blacker in that window now than any other black I've ever seen?"

— Captain Hawkins tries to process the unnerving, unnatural quality of the subspace void visible through the ship's observation port.

"If you choose to come with us peacefully, what will happen is this: We will take over all of your worlds at once, evacuating your people from them in less than a month... Of course you will not be allowed to retain either your own personalities or your memories."

— Lan Sur casually explains the total erasing of human history and individual identity that awaits the conquered race.

"No more heaven full of stars to write poems about, to sail true courses by, and to sing love songs under. I guess a lot of us will be lonely for all the stars."

— Captain Hawkins reflects mournfully on the permanent loss of the night sky after hiding Earth's colonies inside the dark void.

What It's Really About

The story examines the psychological behavior of individuals and species when forced into extreme conflict. Through the lens of Kurt Lewin's psychological theories, it explores the concept of "leaving the field"—how an individual or a civilization reacts when presented with two equally unacceptable choices. When forced to choose between death and absolute identity destruction, the narrative argues that true intelligence lies in rejecting the presented binary altogether to find an unimagined third way out.

Additionally, the text contrasts technological arrogance with accidental discovery, showing how supreme confidence in military power creates fatal vulnerabilities. It poses troubling questions about the cost of survival, asking whether a species remains truly human when it must sever its connection to the wider cosmos to stay alive.

Why Read It Today

Science fiction enthusiasts who appreciate classic mid-century space drama will find Avoidance Situation a fast-paced, brainy slice of speculative fiction. Published in 1956, the story relies not on high-tech military hardware to save the day, but on psychological manipulation, observational logic, and tactical deceit. Readers who enjoy puzzle-box sci-fi scenarios—where a seemingly godlike antagonist must be outsmarted rather than outgunned—will find Hawkins’s clever maneuvering immensely satisfying.

The narrative moves briskly, grounding its interstellar stakes in intimate, conversational scenes between a tired captain and his ship's psychologist. While it carries the familiar tropes of its era, including military hierarchy and pulpy galactic empires, it avoids melodramatic action in favor of a thoughtful exploration of human resilience. The central dilemma leaves a haunting aftertaste: saving the human race requires plunging it into an eternal night, trading the beauty of a star-filled sky for the safety of a dark, hidden horizon.